Four Years
by downtonily
Summary: Mrs. Hughes left four years ago, Now someone wants her back.
1. Chapter 1

**August 15th, 1917**

He took his hat off and gave her a small smile.

It'd been over four years since she had left. The housekeeper she used to be was no where to be found in the woman she was now. She looked worn and ragged, running a farm by herself was not what she had intended.

Elsie Burn's had lost her husband, as well as her step-son. The family she married into had been taken by a war and illnesses they had no control over. He knew her step-son had been serving in the military and was killed early on in the war. Joe Burns had come down with a deadly strain of the flu.

She motioned towards the table with two chairs, so simple, so unlike their owner.

"Come back,"

He watched the emotions wash over her face, he knew what she was thinking. Downton wasn't her home anymore, it hadn't been for four years. But she couldn't run a home and a farm by herself, he wouldn't let her waste away her life for feelings of loyalty towards a dead man.

"Mr Carson, it isn't my place to say if I can go back, and even if I did what would I do? Stand over Anna's shoulder? I wouldn't do that to the girl,"

Charles looked down at his hands with a sigh, he knew she would say that. The next words out of his mouth might be the only option to get her to come back or the ones that kept her away.

"I can retire and we-"

She scoffed.

"Can what? Live together? The ever proper Charles Carson living unmarried with a woman!"

It sounded absurd when she it put like that. Charles took a deep breath and said a prayer for the first time in a long time.

"I never said unmarried."

_**A/N**_

_**I've had this drabble sitting around for months, and now I'm putting it into use !**_


	2. Chapter 2

They give her odd looks as she lets Charles buy her a room for the night. Everyone knows the former housekeeper, but what is the current butler of Downton Abbey buying her a room for?

She takes the key and just nods towards Charles. The name is still new on her lips, since the day she decided to sell the farm (He had told her she couldn't live for a dead man. He was right.) Charles had insisted on his first name.

Even with his plans of courting her (She decided she wouldn't marry him straight away.) he still called her _Mrs. Burns_; she could see the way it pained him. Even after four years she could read him like an open book. But he refused to call her Elsie for the time being. (Elsie would never understand what went through the head of her butler sometimes.)

"Have a nice night Mrs. Burns,"

"Goodnight Charles,"

Elsie gives him a small smile and starts towards the rooms for the night. She turned back around to see Charles still standing there watching her. She wondered what was going through his mind. She was the one in charge of their relationship now (She had never had that power.) and she could only imagine the power she held over Charles Carson. She didn't know that Charles had puled himself in even farther then before, her letters with Anna the past couple of weeks had revealed a lot about what happened after she left. (His shorter fits of anger, the nights Anna knew he had drunk himself to sleep, all of this new information scared her. But it explained everything.) Elsie knew she wasn't the only one who had lost someone over the past four years. (If only he had told her sooner.)

Giving him one last wave of goodbye she turned into the corridor to find her home for the next couple of weeks.

AN:

Okay, I know this is months and months after I first posted this. But I didn't have the heart to delete it. So I'll just go on with this story in drabble formats. R/Rs would be great J


	3. Chapter 3

"Thank you,"

Lady Crawley merely shook her head and turned to look outside the window of the small cottage.

"You gave us a great many years of service Mrs. C-Burns," The hesitation on her last name was noted. Even the Lady couldn't hide her slipups from the former housekeeper. She was no new housemaid unsure of her position, she can tell the unfamiliar name on the Countess' lips confused her and she wanted to replace her married name for another. Turning back to Elsie she gave her a small smile, hoping to have her small mistake forgiven.

It should be Carson, not Burns. To everyone in the house, it was the butler they all swore she'd leave service for. The Crawley girls as young girls would tease Charles about her, he never told her but she had paused a few times before opening his pantry door over the years. Even at 13, young Mary Crawley still found the time to stop acting like a Lady to tease Charles Carson.

"Well, I should be off, if you like I can have Mrs. Bates send over a couple of housemaids-"

"I'll be fine, your Ladyship, and thank you,"

The Lady gave a brief smile and opened the cottage door to her new home and slipped out. (One thing she would always be grateful for, the American didn't demand as much tradition and respect as so many Lady's do. She doesn't believe she has that right. Even after all these years in England, she is still an outside in many ways.)

Looking around the small cottage she took in the home. She wouldn't need housemaids to help her with the cleaning. The meaningless act of cleaning was a godsend to her. She didn't have to worry about animals or what she'll do with the fields. Instead she could sweep the floors, scrub the kitchen, and quietly waste her time doing things she had almost forgotten in the last six months after Joe had died.

The cottages small bedroom was off to the side (It was big enough for her. But would it be big enough for two?), the kitchen that was clean with new installments (Most likely a request on Lady Mary's part. Not for her but for Charles.), and then a small washroom. It wasn't anything huge, but it would be her home, the home she would live the rest of her days out in.

Elsie Hughes had left this place four years ago and never expected to come back to it.

But here she is, standing on ground owned by the Crawley's and a butler waiting for the right time to start courting her.

**A/N:** Thanks for all the reviews guys . I wasn't sure about this chapter because I didn't intend on writing it. But I hope you like it!


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